has the power to gather thousands of students of a large number of religious seminaries, spread all over Pakistan. Even Islamabad and Rawalpindi have many seminaries, which will readily provide the manpower to any protest organised by Fazlur Rehman.
The primary purpose of meeting of Punjab Chief Minister with the JUI-F chief on Friday was to woo him into accepting the amendments in the Constitution and the PAA since they are now law. This was indeed a forceful effort. Obviously, Shahbaz Sharif met him with the approval of the prime minister.
Fazlur Rehman’s demand that the amendments should be altered accommodating his points is very difficult to accept if not totally impossible. Any consensus on changing these amendments is safely ruled out as all the parliamentary forces except the JUI-F and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had fully supported them.
The two dissenting parties have altogether sixteen members of the National Assembly. The JUI-F also has seven senators while JI has no member in the upper house of Parliament. Thus, these parties are in a clear minority to force any modification in the amendments. They may have street power to create a scene but lack any respectable parliamentary strength for lawmaking.
Of the JUI-F and JI, the former is very staunchly opposed to the amendments and is building up a campaign with the support of the administrators of the religious seminaries while the latter has not shown as much enthusiasm against them although the two will be part of any grand alliance on the pattern of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal against the new legislation that may be made if there was no agreement with the government.
On the other hand, the parliamentary parties supporting the amendments want the changes to be implemented without any loss of time. Among them, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement is very forceful and on the forefront. As far as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is concerned, there is no looking back and it is poised to firmly deal with the terrorists. The necessary paperwork is being currently done to kick-start trial of terrorists by the military courts.
However, an important aspect of the controversy fueled by Fazl and JI is that their opposition to the amendments would have an adverse impact on the drive against terrorists and gives the impression of political division. However, whatever they say and do the trials by the military courts would begin in a couple of weeks as per the amendments.